In an era where chemical, biological or nuclear attacks at one or more locations either globally or within a country are possible, it is desirable to have a surveillance system capable of locating and identifying the type of attack so that a rapid response can be initiated. Such attacks can occur both as a result of enemy or terrorist activity or as a result of a chemical, biological or nuclear accident in a domestic facility. In all such cases, a prompt response with medical treatment will tend to minimize injury and loss of life.
Obviously, sensors exist which will detect various chemical and biological agents as well as nuclear radiation, but effective use of such sensors in a global or even a national surveillance system would require hundreds of thousands of sensors and would be impractical. Also, sensors have been subject to agents devised by microbiologists to thwart the effective operations of the sensors.
Sensors have been effectively used to detect hazardous airborne agent attacks on very limited areas, such as buildings or compounds, but a problem still remains as to how an attack occurring in a large area, such as a city, state, country or globally can effectively and rapidly be identified. To this point, as illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,278,539 to Lauterbach et al., and 5,576,952 to Stutman et al., hazardous material and medical alerts have originated from small, specific locations or from specific patients.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved surveillance system and method for identifying chemical, biological and nuclear/radiological attacks or hazards occurring within a large area too extensive for effective sensor coverage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved surveillance system and method for identifying chemical, biological and nuclear attacks or hazards occurring within a large area which includes obtaining syndromic data from sources within the area and comparing this syndromic data with simulation data modeled for one or more chemical, biological or nuclear agents at a plurality of locations within the area.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved surveillance system and method for identifying attacks or hazards caused by chemical, biological or nuclear agents within a large area. A plurality of modeling locations are selected within the area, and spaced periodic simulations are continuously initiated for each modeling location to determine simulation data indicative of symptomatic effects of various concentrations of one or more chemical, nuclear or biological agents at the modeling location. This data is used for comparison with actual syndromic data from sources within the area.
These and other objects are achieved by providing a surveillance system and method for identifying chemical, biological or nuclear attacks or hazards occurring within a large area which combines data derived from a modeling and simulation operation with a surveillance data input. The modeling and simulation operation involves continuous periodic runs of multiple scenarios for various biological, chemical and nuclear agents in varying concentrations for a given location. For example, every two hours for 100 different locations within a city, using real time weather data for each location, a model is made in a database of the effect various concentrations of agents would have at that location and this simulated model is processed in real time and/or stored for future processing.
The surveillance data input monitors actual human signs and symptoms for the modeled area. This real time data can come from monitored clinic and hospital computers, emergency room data, 911 calls, and computer data from pharmacies, physicians and laboratories. This data with real time weather data is compared with the results of modeling and simulation data for the area to determine if a pattern matching that for any modeled agent is present, and if a matching pattern is identified, an alarm is given.